Saturday, May 31, 2008

I was so close... I really wanted that $4,680 first place prize. Instead I end up with $945...

I played pretty tight after accumulating big stack early and in the end, I had a medium stack and ended up jamming A9 from the button into the BB who woke up with 99. It was kind of an overbet shove so I'm wondering if that shove was ill advised. There were 6 remaining though so it would have been tough to lay down A9 against a resteal shove from the big stack who could be doing it with such a wide range.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

It's 2pm EST, 3am Tokyo time (I'm sure there's a more official way to say this)... all I know is I'm setting my alarm to make sure I wake up in time for the Mookie. I wasn't gonna stay up so late... but then I decided before I go to bed to play a quick tournament. I figured a KO tourney would be good enough so I signed up for it, thinking I'll donk around, have fun for $24 and go to bed. 5 hrs later, this is what happens.

Yes, you saw that right. I won. I know. Shocking. I actually played a nonblogger MTT. I guess I am glad I did. Sadly, this is my largest tournament score... I clearly have ways to go but at least now I can say that I have won an MTT, for what it's worth.

I actually played well in this tourney with no suckouts that I can think of until the final table. I didn't even have to race for too many chips. Funny thing was, going into the final table, I had only collected 3 bounties. And yet, this is what the start of the final table looked like.

I got good cards when I needed them, I recognized the weak EP limpers and shoved pretty much ATC, etc so it was rare that I went to showdown. I think there may have been one or two key races but at this point, I really can't remember. The final table, however, was a completely different story. I had one sick suckout and a few key holds.

This was obviously gross but I felt I was getting close enough odds and he seemed to have been reraising fairly light. Ah, what the hell. I don't really have a reason. I felt that it was close enough. That's all. Then when we were 3 handed, this is what happened.

I don't know about G3N371X but he was very aggressive with his raises and reraises so I had to figure ace high was ahead of his range. I hated my kicker but with my stack size, I decided to go with it.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Have you ever been to Richmond, VA? Not much of a place. It's not too bad. It's like a typical midsize city in America I think. It's got decent shops, restaurants, nice suburbs, etc etc. But unlike the major cities, it's boring. Of course, if you're from a smaller town, this place is probably perfect as a place like NY or LA might be too big. But growing up in Tokyo, I have to admit... it's boring here.

However, one thing I do love about Richmond is its newly (relatively speaking) renovated airport. The best part? FREE Wi-Fi. Yep, that's right. Now I know most airports have wireless access but it's not the same if you have to pay for it. Hence, this is one airport where I don't mind coming early so that I could just chill out and play poker till the last minute... or blog, like I am currently doing.

But, I didn't fire up my computer to just give you a status update of my travels. Wait, I guess I never said where I was going. I am going home (to Tokyo, Japan) for 2 weeks. Should be a good time. Well, anyways, so this morning, I get up, get ready and when the transportation service comes to pick me up to take me to the airport, the neighbor across the street yells out at me as he's walking his kid to school.

"Hey Alan!"

"Hey Todd."

"Hey man, you gotta do something about your yard. I mean I'll help you but... quite frankly, your yard looks like crap!"

Now, let me give you a brief description of our yard. Is it crappy? I don't think so. Is it meticulous like my neighbor's who is a stay at home dad? No. So, there are some shrubs that need to be trimmed, some weeds that need to be attended to, etc. It's by no means perfect which is why I had the landscaping contractor come by to give me an estimate and scheduled for him to service our lawn in 3 weeks... which was his first available. This, after we already tried 3 different contractors who were booked up.

Another problem was that our shutters by the window came loose and one actually fell. But they were on the second floor and I don't have a tall enough ladder. And it just happened so I called someone else to take care of that situation as well. Should be fixed by next week.

So anyways, our pleasant neighbor continues his morning rant.

"And your shutters are loose, one's missing, and it just looks awful man. It's not helping us sell our house."

Now keep in mind, this classy neighbor is yelling this out from across the street instead of having the dignity (read: balls) to come up to me and talk to me like an adult. And his kid is right there!!!

So I counter with this:

"Well, good thing you are moving. You don't ever have to look at our yard!"

Neighbor: "Yeah, it must be nice to be you. You get to see our nice yard while I have to look at your crappy yard!" (yard fight!!!!!)

Me: "Well, I'm just glad I would no longer have to look at your ugly mug. And don't worry, we have a contractor coming to take care of it. He'll be here in a few weeks."

Neighbor: "Few weeks!? Why don't you do something about it!?"

Me: "I'm going out of town."

Neighbor: "Must be nice!" (heavy sarcasm)

Me: "The best part is, I don't have to see you for the next few weeks. Have a good day!"

And I hop into my ride. I'm fairly certain if his kid wasn't next to him, a few f-bombs woulda been dropped. But no need to go there just because his dad has no class.

One thing I wish I said was when he said something about taking care of my lawn, I wanted to drop a stache reference since he's sporting one... just didn't come to me quick enough. My buddy pouringreign woulda had a field day with that one.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Time and time again, you see posts from a lot of the notable bloggers (some whom I respect/like a lot) about how terrible the bloggers are at poker and how everyone is such a donkey and how people never get any better, etc etc. Some may alter HHs (I've only heard rumors but I've heard 'em), some may call themselves breakeven, or some may just rant about bad beats all the time... I don't know. Everyone does something different but it really doesn't matter because it's your personal blog right? To an extent, blog is almost like a poker diary. And no one ever tells a teenage girl what she can or can't write in a diary (more power to those that actually have a diary - teenage girl reference is just a play on the stereotype). Same goes for a blog, IMO. Having said that, I am gonna go the other way and defend the bloggers...

Bloggers aren't nearly as bad as everyone make them sound.

Now don't get me wrong. Let me start by saying this. In case you are thinking "finally, someone standing up to defend my great call with TPTK only to get a runner runner flush to bust that asshole's flopped set" this is not such post. As a matter of fact, I generally agree with what a lot of the playas say about bloggers in general. You guys are pretty terrible (not all but many). Seriously. I've seen the plays and though I'm not nearly as successful (read - I suck), at least in MTTs, as many others, hell, most other bloggers, I see the plays that are made and they are horrendous. Ok, stop hating. Please, read on. I swear, I'll explain in a minute.

My point is this. Who cares? For some reason, there's some insane notion that just because you blog about it, you obviously care about it, and so you should be better. According to that theory, we should all be masters of whatever the hell we are interested in. I hear bunch of fat ass 40 something year olds at a sports bar talking about how Tom Brady shoulda done this or shoulda done that on the football field. They clearly care. They clearly have a passion for the game. But are they any good? Probably not. Of course, I realize the analogy is pretty insane but the point is this. Just because people care doesn't mean they care enough to make that a top priority.

Same goes for the bloggers. Just because people blog about their poker escapades, doesn't mean they are good at it. Now, wait. Before you start hating on me, I will be the first to admit that I make horrendous plays too. One time, I got a HH file where I can watch it on a replayer from another player at my table... and watching myself (without knowing what my hole cards were because I didn't remember), I was cringing at how bad I played. I mean literally. I was about to label that player a donkey when I realized it was me. I mean I was raising and folding in situations where it looked like I shouldn't. I was folding to reraises. I was doing this and that. So this is not a "I am high and mighty" post. As a matter of fact, it was an eye opener for me. When you know your cards, you start playing a certain way. You think everything makes sense given your cards. But when you are able to later watch it from a different player's perspective, it's almost shocking what's revealed.

So let's think about this. People blog about poker. They care enough. They want to make more money. Maybe they want to be acknowledged. Instead, their poor plays are highlighted, they become the subject of a rant, they're called lucky if they win, etc etc. It never ends. But in reality, how many of you out there truly care? I mean care enough to comb through your hand histories? Not just the one that's in your selective memory bank but I mean comb through every single one of them. Thinking about them. Spending time discussing them. Willing to really open up to others about hands you felt you misplayed. Admitting your mistakes? Those are all very hard things to do and even for a degenerate like me with an infinite desire to get better, it's hard.

Do you all subscribe to poker training sites? I am assuming not many do. If you do, do you watch the videos regularly? I bet even less people are doing that. I mean in the end, how many people have time for that? Most of you don't have time to devote as much effort into poker and blogging may be the extent of it. I'm fairly certain blogging alone doesn't make you a better poker player. So why the hate on the bloggers? I occasionally browse through forums like 2+2 and pocketfives and there are plenty of haters and just horrendous donkeys there too. I even played in a PXF private tourney the other day... this is a private tourney where people subscribe to tournament vids and yet there were plenty of poor plays. I guess my point is, it doesn't matter what group of people you take. Some are more willing than others to put the time in and some are more able to do so because of how they shift priorities around. Would I be a better player if I decided that my friends aren't important so I never went out or if I thought that working out is overrated so I stopped going to the gym or running or playing basketball? Maybe. But I guess even I am not THAT committed to poker. And hell... I play more and think about poker a lot more than most of you.

Just to illustrate, I am going to pick on one blogger. I consider him a friend and he's been railing me from pretty much the beginning of my blogging career when one day he dropped "hey pokertachi" in the chat box... at a time I didn't even know anyone read my blog.

Meet Schaubs. (and note that this name coulda been replaced by many other bloggers and nonbloggers, like PouringReign, that I know that "care" about poker)

Great guy, great golfer, not so great poker player. As a matter of fact, I will go ahead and say it. He sucks at poker. Some of the plays I've seen him make or the HH he sends me shows how bad some of his plays are. And we let him have it. He takes it in good strides. Ok, so maybe he doesn't totally suck. But I still see some seriously flawed thinking. You know why? Is it because he's dumber than us? He's just not as bright? He has no poker genes? NO!!! It's because he doesn't care like some of us do. He actually has a life. He spends time with his wife and friends. He goes out to play golf. Plays in tournaments (golf tournaments, you crazies), enjoys outdoor life, does other things than combing over HHs. Of course, he sees others play and make money and think "I want to be him" but not enough that he sacrifices some of the other things he does to make him a happy person. And there's nothing wrong with that. He probably even actually works while he's at work while some of us degenerates are "Alt+tab"-ing between some random excel or word file and the text file as we secretly review our HH sessions. (if you don't get the reference, try holding down "alt" key and hit the "tab" key - Windows only).

It's so easy to hate and point and laugh at mistakes at other bloggers because we all play in the same tournaments over and over. But increasing reps doesn't mean increasing skill. I'm fairly certain that I could play 1,000 games of Stud hi/lo. If I don't study it, talk about it, review it, and think about it, I would probably still suck at it as much as I do now... and believe me, I have no clue how to play that game. In the end, there are those bloggers that truly want to improve and actually shift priorities around to make that happen. Then there are others who are just out there to have fun. There are also others who want to get better but doesn't spend nearly as enough time. It's like me going to the gym. I wanna get stronger and bigger. But I don't want to spend 2 hrs at a gym 5 times a week. So I don't. Instead, I do 3 times a week for an hour and it's good enough to maintain what I got but that's about it. And sometimes, even THAT's a pain.

Alright, let's see if I can close this lengthy post. My point is this. The blogger population is no better or worse than the rest of the pokernation. You could take a certain group and you will still see some insanely donkish players, ridiculously passively played hands, or retardedly aggressive moves. I've seen someone play a hand in a way that I think is horrible in a bloggament... but I'll see some other insanity in another nonblogger table. One thing I know is that this group of bloggers have always been nice to me, very open to new bloggers like myself, and whenever I am playing in a blogger tourney while listening to BDR (and the donkalicious rants of Sean, Buddy, Riggs, sometimes EvilWonka, sometimes NumbBlowMe) I am always having fun... of course, until the inevitable suckout by some donkey blogger. :) You know, because I am always ahead and never suck out. (in case you didn't get the sarcasm, see bodog post below)

Some might still argue that bloggers are worse than regular pokernation. Or some might say they are better. I just say that bloggers make a good representative of what the poker population is like in general. Of course, that's just my opinion. And it's my blog so I'll write whatever the hell I want to.

First off, go congratulate KJTech for his victory. It was a lengthy heads up match and I almost finished him off at first with 99 all in preflop against AJs. Two diamond flop and he has AJ of diamonds so even if I call his 3 bet and jam flop, result would be the same. Nonetheless, from that point on, he pretty much pwned me. I did manage to get back to even but in the end, I overplayed Kx suited and was busted by his A7 suited. He played well, obv, so again, go give his blog some love.

I bad beated him when we were down to 3 handed maybe when I had 88 vs his AA and I hit an 8. Earlier, I got coolered where I had KK and Riggstad had AA. Give and take I guess. Yes... I will not forget that in these two hands, the only bad beat was the one given by me...

I missed out the first hour and maybe 15 minutes. I just got home late tonight... probably a good thing. Maybe I'll try that next week. That will prevent me from spewing chips early.

I don't know exactly where I stand... I think last I checked, I was in like twenty something place... Hopefully, tonight's performance gets me in top 18 since there's a 18 person SNG for a seat to the WSOP.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Before I get started, for those of my friends who are nonpoker players who want to read some interesting, enjoyable nonpoker posts, read the trip reports of CK and F-Train as they make their way out to Vegas from NY. They are driving across the country and so far, I think it's been very interesting to follow. CK's first time experience at Walmart is priceless.

"But no Wal-Mart experience would be complete without standing in line behind a woman with an infant baby. In Wal-Mart. After midnight."

Truer words have never been spoken. I was rolling when I read that... and slightly embarrassed that I knew what she was talking about...

Ok, now on with the main part of my post (poker stuff begins here).

Poker players love draws. That is the only explanation that I can think of when I see players overshove preflop with AK. Yeah, I know. Some of you must think AK is a big pair or something... so it might shock you to know that it IS a drawing hand. But against me, get it in because it hits every time. EVERY FUCKIN TIME. Even last night, I have JJ in the CO (this is cash game, not MATH), I raise, button reraises me. I 4 bet, and of course, the button insta shoves which is larger than a normal pot sized raise. At this point, I give his range 90% AK and 10% KK-JJ. So I instacall. Of course, he has AK. Of course, A on the river. Standard. For those of you that say, hey, it's a coinflip, yeah I understand. If giving up 7-8% edge to your opponent is a coinflip (some may even argue +EV), then you all must LOVE casino games. I personally don't. Apparently, I hate to gamble (except craps). Which is also probably why you will never see me win a meaningful tournament. But that is neither here nor there. Apparently, I got up on the wrong side of the bed because this post is starting out as cranky as it can be... but I actually have a strategy topic today. What can I say. I guess I reverse jinxed myself when I said I don't feel like blogging. Cuz now, I am eager to type away.

Alright, so anyways, my main topic today is playing hands where you flop a pair and a flush draw. We love these types of hands don't we? Some of us might consider it a "monster flop." Again, I would like to remind everyone though that it might seem like a great flop with such a great draw but let's keep in mind one thing. It IS a draw. Having said that, I think there are tons of ways to play it which makes the hand so valuable. The question is this though. When should you play it fast and when should you play it cautiously? Now keep in mind, I am not encouraging players to get it in behind. I know most of you would love to do that to build a big pot in a potential "coin flip" situation when in fact, you are behind. I think there are times to play it fast and there are times to play it slow. So here are some HHs that I saved from the last few days where I flop a pair and a flush draw.

This was an instance where the UTG raiser is a known LAG. UTG raises in 6 max these days really don't mean anything... And especially against this particular villain, I know it didn't mean much. With the stacks being deep, instead of reraising pre, I am working to see more flops in position.

I am obviously liking this flop. Of course, it's draw heavy and with my flush draw to boot, my initial thought was to raise. But then I didn't. Because the more I thought about it, the more I wasn't sure what that would accomplish. A worse hand would fold. Of course, a draw might chase but again, this guy is aggressive. I don't want to face a big reraise in instances where he might have flopped a set. I am not eager to drop 200BB+ by chasing. And in case you thought, well, you could have the best hand, there aren't too many combinations where I do have the best hand if the guy 3 bets me on the flop. He could obv have JhTh or 7h8h but he could also be bluffing with just a standard cbet so instead of finding out if he has a monster or just cbetting by raising, I opted to call. In actuality, I felt that my hand was too strong to raise here. I am ahead of a significant portion of his betting range so instead of trying to end the hand here, I figured I'd smooth call to see the next card.

The Q is obv a great card for me. It's a great card for multiple reasons. For one, if the villain was worried that I had a Q, the second Q on the turn is great because now, he thinks it's less likely that I have a Q and more likely that I'm on a draw. His thought will be "well, if he had a Q, on such a draw heavy board, why wouldn't he raise? oh look, there's another Q. He obv doesn't have a Q so he must be drawing." On my side, I have another reason to not bet. At this point, I am not drawing to anything. In other words, now, I beat all the hands out there that was ahead of me except for a set. Once again, I felt that this would be an instance where I would raise and the hand would end. It was a toss up though. I probably raise here x% of the time and smooth call here y% of the time... I just don't know what the x's and y's are. But I know one thing. On the river, I was hoping for a nonheart.

*** SHOW DOWN ***Hero shows [Qh Jh] three of a kind, QueensVillain mucks [2s 2d]Hero wins the pot ($289) with three of a kind, Queens

3s was a perfect card for me. Of course, one less and I pay off the villain big time. But on the river, notice that I bet $85 into a pot that has about $120. I wanted to bet a good chunk that would look like I'm looking to get a fold with my missed draw. Which was why I was hoping for a nonheart. The LAG makes a hero call because I smooth called on both streets before showing aggression all of a sudden on the river. The irony of this hand is that if my hand wasn't so strong, I would have played it a lot stronger... In other words, if I had 8h7h or JhTh, I would have played it a lot faster than I would by having top pair. Why? Because with top pair (and the top pair being a fairly high face card), more often than not, I get a worse hand to fold and only a better hand to come along. Not many better hands will fold here so I didn't feel that I should show too much aggression.

This was a horrible preflop call. There's an UTG limp and UTG +1 makes a pot sized raise (the raise was $11 because there was another guy posting from LP). Th9h is a marginal drawing hand and I would be playing it from the worst position AND the UTG limper has yet to act. Fortunately for me, he calls but I just want to state that this preflop call is prob -EV over time. But tis how the hand goes...

Ok, let's review what happened here. I checkraise an amount which basically commits my entire stack in that if the villain shoves, I'm getting too good of an odds to fold with what I would consider to be having at least 9 outs. But this is 1-2NL... not many people bet out their sets so I figured he is either just cbetting or he has an overpair. Now, why do I say that about this hand and not the previous one? The previous one, I had a Q. In other words, the only overpairs are AA or KK. Here, the flop is 9 high. That increases the overpair range to TT-AA. The reason why I checkraise here is that I really don't want to see any more cards. If he has two overs, I'm ok with him folding after the cbet. If he has a higher flushdraw, then I am ahead and he has less outs than he thinks (ie if he has AhKh, he has 2 less outs since I have 2 hearts). If he has TT or JJ, it could be really hard for him to continue on. If he just calls my checkraise, I'm obv jamming turn regardless of whether I hit or not. Turns out he has a much higher pair so he wasn't going anywhere.

I obv got lucky but I did have 15 outs twice. The reason why I wanted to include this hand was here, I actually wanted fold equity which I believe I had against some of the hands that might be ahead. Now granted, I don't know how often a hand like TT or JJ would fold here so maybe I didn't have as much fold equity as I thought initially. But even with no fold equity, I believe the odds are so close that even if only TT folds once in a while, it's probably a +EV move. Not sure though. Just sounds good to say it.

Any thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Anyone think I overplayed the second hand? Anyone think rope-a-dope is NOT a good strategy in the first hand? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Monday, May 19, 2008

These days, for some reason, I'm not in the mood to blog. Maybe I'm just kinda worn out. Maybe it's because I am busy at work. I'm really not sure why but it's like I don't really care to set some time aside for blogging. I have one post that's been brewing regarding pair and flush draw hands and so I've been compiling some HHs... I just have to set some time aside to actually complete it. It probably doesn't help that I've been struggling at the tables. I'm getting bad beated/coolered left and right and that's starting to affect my decisions. I'm probably gonna drop down a level for a little while to recuperate my confidence and my bankroll. This Friday will mark the beginning of a two week vacation where I am flying home to Japan where I get to enjoy my mom's home cooking and a very relaxing time where I intend to do nothing but play/study poker, hang out with friends, and hit up the clubs/bars in Tokyo.

Speaking of hitting up bars, this past weekend, I went up to NY. One of my best friend from Tokyo was in NY for business so I decided to join him for the weekend. We had a blast. Friday night, I was supposed to get in around 7:30 but in typical fashion, the flight was delayed due to air traffic in NY. So, I ended up not getting to Laguardia until about 9:30... By the time I got to the hotel where my buddy was staying, it was like 10:30 and he was pretty hammered... not to be outdone, I quickly got ready and we decided to hit up a bar where one of my friends from college was hanging out. We ended up doing shots of soco which always help taking the party to the next level. I don't recall much except ordering pizza at 3am (mmmmmmm, good NY pizza) and shoveling down half of it by myself... my buddy was passed out on the bed by the time they delivered.

Saturday, he had to do some shopping for his fiancee so we walked down 5th Ave from 61st (where the hotel was) all the way down to about 34th st. We had lunch at the Rockefeller Center (nothing says tourist like eating lunch there), downed a few beers and then just walked from store to store. His fiancee makes like freakin insane amount of money so her taste was accordingly expensive. By the time shopping was complete, it was like 7pm... 7 hrs of walking is exhausting... That night, we were going to join my other friend from college who was gonna be partying in the Lower East Side... I also find out that LJ and Kev are gonna be downtown around 11pm so it's at least in the same direction and we figured we could hit up both.

We decided to go eat some Japanese food... which was kinda ironic that we eat Japanese food in the U.S. when next week, we'd be doing the exact same thing. However, my buddy was tired of eating burgers and pasta so he wanted something different... being in Richmond, I don't have access to Japanese food... I mean there are Japanese restaurants but it's f*ckin awful... it's like shit on a platter... I mean to serve that garbage and call it japanese food is an insult... (there's more to japanese food than sushi, in case you are wondering). Anyways, so we went to an area that was like Little Japan... basically in the Lower East Side area. We had some yakitori which is chicken on skewers, some cube steaks with ginger/soy sauce, edamame, etc. We order a pitcher and we kick off night #2. Basically a prelude to what we will be doing in Japan next week. Woot.

After dinner, we head to the bar in LES to join my friend from college. More beers are downed and then around 11:30, I tell my buddy that we need to go to another bar so that I can see LJ and Kev. I'm not sure why but I was pretty hammered by the time I got there... We ordered a few drinks and it wasn't until Sunday that I remembered that it was on their tab... Kev, LJ, I owe you big time. That's twice now that I was up in NY, saw you guys and you guys picked up the tab. Next one is definitely on me. Maybe in Vegas??? :)

We then went back to the bar in LES (not sure how or when we decided to leave... that part is kind of a blur), drank more, I found out that the "easy girl that would put out" (so dubbed by my friend from college) had left, so just kept drinking more, and the rest of the night is kind of a blur. I know that once again, we ordered food at like 3am... I know this, mainly because of the call history on my phone. We got cheesesticks and wings this time and I do remember devouring them.

Sunday, my buddy and I had breakfast at the hotel and by 2pm, I was back safe and sound in Richmond. NY was a total blast and I love that place. I also learned later that I drunk texted theseguys. Good times.

I hope everyone had a nice and profitable weekend.

Oh, and a big congrats to Gnome for cashing in the FTOPS ME. I busted out in the 3rd hr when I shoved my dwindling stack with AQ. It was no match against AK.

And don't you love how I write a lengthy post right after commenting that I don't feel like writing? Good times.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Probably people will think that this is silly coming from me. I don't have any kids, I have no obligation to anyone besides my job and these days, I'm not sure how much of an obligation it is considering all the work tilt I am going through. Fuck this place and fuck these guys. Just a bunch of schlubs trying to get rewarded for things they didn't do and avoid being accountable for mistakes they make. Fuckin losers. And yes, I know... that's everywhere.

Well, anyways, I haven't been working too late but late enough. By the time I come back from working out and eating dinner, it's time for the nightly grind that is the quest of the TOC or winning the fishcake sidebet for a good chunk of cash. It would be like winning the player of the month award. And I have to admit... even for me who loves poker and plays it on a daily basis, the BBT3 is starting to become a grind. It's still fun but unlike cash games, tournaments start at a given time. So, I'm noticing that I am concious about what time it is so that I can be home in time for these tournaments... and hell, I'm on the east coast. I don't know how you west coasters do it. No way I would be home in time for riverchasers or bodonkey for example... I can't remember the last time I was home by 6:30pm...

So anyways, where am I going with this? I mean I am home, after work, working out, playing poker by 9 or 10pm, what's the problem right? Well, I think in poker, I have different goals than most people. And for that, I feel that I need to work harder on my game, on many aspects of my game. I continue to get better. With more resources and better software out there (such as new releases of PT3 and Hold'em Manager), it is imperative (like Gnome said) that good players keep staying ahead of the curve. For me, that means even more studying... and that usually comes not just from reviewing my sessions but also watching vids, reading forums, etc. And I don't have any time for that. I know I know... Boo fuckin hoo right? Most of you that play also work a very long day and then come home probably to family and kids and you have other obligations... so my dilemma is pretty weak in comparison, but a dilemma nonetheless. I haven't had any time to read any of the newer books and I just want to make sure that my game is not becoming stagnant. After two tough weekends, I am starting to have doubts, even though when I looked through every single one of my hands and how I played it based on the HH from each of the sessions, I wasn't too upset with how I played, even when reviewing it a few days later. Still, if I want to move up, I will encounter tougher players and I really need to dedicate some time to growing as a player. I'm not a natural like some others so I just need more help. I think I absorb a lot but I'm just not creative so without someone throwing out ideas, it just doesn't quite occur to me... or at the very least, I can't visualize it enough to incorporate it until someone spells it out for me.

This is turning into a rambling post...

I am headed up to NY this weekend. Hopefully, I will get to see thesetwo. But, main reason I'm going up there is because my best friend from Japan is there for business and so I decided to join him for the weekend. It should be a fun time even though there will be no poker played. Imagine that... I have friends that don't play poker. Actually... most of my friends don't play poker... WTF is wrong with you guys!?

This was an interesting weekend. Leading up to Sunday night, it was a fairly profitable one and I was feeling pretty good about my game. I was playing both on Pokerstars and Fulltilt and on Sunday, I was even taking a shot at being a tournament donk... At one point, I was three tabling, none of which were cash games... Crazy!

I played in two FTOPS 9 Satellites, both of which I won an entry to so I decided to go ahead and play in the FTOPS 9, which was a $322 buyin NLHE event. I busted out somewhere in the middle of the pack when I squeezed with TT. Turns out, the guy who smooth called had AK and I lost the race. The unfortunate thing was that few hands before that, I had AQ in the SB and I had full intention of resteal-shove based on my stack size when there's a raise and a reraise in front of me. I reluctantly fold, just to see a Q-Q-x flop... PUKE.

Well, at least I was profitable in the sense that I won 2 seats... except I used up all my profit when I went 0 for 4 in the 100 chip super turbo satellite... dammit...

One of the other tournaments I played in was the 24k or the 28k or something... something in the middle of the day. 1060ish runners, top 108 pays, I bust 110 when I CALL a jam from UTG with JJ. He has AK. One question was this... At the time, we both had about 20k in chips, I can't remember the blinds but I believe the M is somewhere around 5-7. We were both around top 50 in stack size so we're clearly not in desperation mode, though it was right before the third break so the blinds were about to go up. He jams UTG and I thought he wouldn't do it with AA or KK because he wants to maximize the amount he could win and with that stack size, there was just waaaaaay too much fold equity that a lot of middle pairs wouldn't call (unless of course, you're an idiot). So, my read was that his range was 88-QQ (I just couldn't imagine he would open shove with 77 or less, even though that's possible but I like to keep my opponent's range fairly conservative), AK, and maybe AQ. So, I called with JJ, and lose the race. If I win, I'm top 10 in stack. Is that a right call? Or, is there an argument to wait for a better situation? Thoughts?

Then came Sunday night. Again, I was feeling good about my game, I thought things were going well and then boom. I gave it all back and then some in a span of 2 hrs. AA < T6 (after a preflop raise and a flop bet, villain manages to turn 2 pair, at which point, given his shorter stack size, I was committed), KK < AA (against same villain who then proceeded to tell me I suck, mainly because he was pretty pissed at me by this time because after the AA < T6 hand, I was abusing him pretty badly - I will remember that motherfucker and I will search you every time). And then there was this hand...

*** FLOP *** [3d 2s 9d]badunkAAdonk checksAndTheRiverIs checksbetwitnothin has 15 seconds left to actbetwitnothin bets $45MacDaddy34 calls $45RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to actRecessRampage calls $45badunkAAdonk foldsAndTheRiverIs has 15 seconds left to actAndTheRiverIs has requested TIMEAndTheRiverIs raises to $180betwitnothin has 15 seconds left to actbetwitnothin has requested TIMEbetwitnothin foldsMacDaddy34 foldsRecessRampage has 15 seconds left to actRecessRampage raises to $547.50, and is all inAndTheRiverIs calls $206, and is all inRecessRampage shows [2h 2d]AndTheRiverIs shows [9c 9s]Uncalled bet of $161.50 returned to RecessRampage*** TURN *** [3d 2s 9d] [Ac]*** RIVER *** [3d 2s 9d Ac] [Ah]RecessRampage shows a full house, Twos full of AcesAndTheRiverIs shows a full house, Nines full of AcesAndTheRiverIs wins the pot ($929) with a full house, Nines full of AcesRecessRampage adds $238.50

I clearly misplayed this hand. On the button, I probably shoulda raised but with so many callers and with me running bad (earlier in the evening at another table, JJ < AQs when all low but two diamond flop gives AQ of diamonds to checkraise me all in), I was actually afraid of bumping it up here because I thought if someone had two overs and a diamond, they would call and I would surely lose. So, I thought I would smooth call and hope for a nondiamond turn at which point, I am a larger statistical favorite... prob a poor thought process but one I cannot deny because of all the beats I was getting. I'm not crying about my bad beats but when it all happens in such a short time span, it really really hurts.

Anyways, I actually thought about folding in that spot. When the guy checkraised against 3 players, to me, that indicated extreme strength. And I couldn't see a guy do that with a draw to the flush because there was already a bettor and two callers. Obviously, someone already is on a flush draw. If he had a larger overpair, he woulda bumped it up preflop since he was BB. So, my gut instinct was that I was the sucker in a set over set situation. I was convinced enough that I type this to bayne before making the raise...

12:36 AM me: how strongly do you have to feel that you have bottom set and someone has higher set? Bayne: PLO me: vs a flush draw Bayne: or HE12:37 AM me: ye[ yep set over set I knew it i shoulda folded

Would this violate the one person to a hand code? I don't think so since no matter what bayne says wouldn't affect what I do. If you think it does, tell me and I'll be mindful of it next time.

Cmitch and Gnome, after talking to them, felt that folding a set in this situation is almost always wrong. Cmitch also mentioned that I am only thinking about folding because I am running bad... true, but you know how sometimes you have the gut feeling? Last night, when I was dealt KK and when the idiot shoved all in for $400+ after I raised it to $14, I thought, "watch this, he's gonna have AA." And he did. My gut feeling was right on. In the above situation, I really came close to folding. I'm looking at it now and I really can't think of too many other hands that would play it like he did. Is folding a set really wrong?

I kept thinking about this chart of how often you are the under set in a set over set situation taken straight from Greylocks' blog...

I'm not saying that I should fear being an underset and fold 22-66 every time. But I think it's important to be cognizant of situations. If it's HU, I would never fold. I would chalk it up to a bad beat. But with that many players, to be honest, there was a fairly decent chance that there was another set. I mean there were 5 players seeing the flop and I have bottom set. That is far from being the nuts. Cmitch, I am still tilting a little but I think I've calmed down and I still could see a fold here and to be honest, I don't think it would be wrong. I don't think I am being results oriented. I don't know. It's very close but definitely not a clear cut all in situation for sure.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Recently, I have gotten a few offers to place ads on my blog for some chunk of money. I honestly don't really know what's stopping me from accepting these offers. I mean a little over a year and a half ago, I started blogging... and this kinda evolved into something more than what I had envisioned. Writing posts have been at times, very therapeutic... it's like an outlet that I have to say what I want or write what I want. Other times, I can post hands that I played and get reviews, comments, etc which obviously helped me grow as a player. Next thing I knew, it appeared that there were actual demands for me to post more hand histories and my thought process... turns out, I wasn't the only one learning.

The good thing about that demand was that now, I am more cognizant of certain hands and so when I encounter or see something, I try to make it a point to save that HH and post it here. I've come to realize that by doing that and looking at the HH usually the next day, I can analyze what was good or what was bad about it in a way that I didn't before. So clearly, this blog evolved into a training ground for me personally.

However, after all that, never have I imagined that I would actually make money on this thing. I mean after all, we all have blogs and so I'm just another fish in the sea. Unless I start winning major tourneys or play ridiculously higher limits, my blog is no more interesting than the next guy. But now, I have gotten offers to put up links to certain sites and by doing so, they would pay me a chunk of change. So it seems like a nobrainer doesn't it? Free money basically...

Except somehow, I feel like I'm selling out.

It's probably silly. Everyone is doing it. It's free money. It's not like I don't advertise since I do have the fulltilt banner to my right and I don't even get rakeback from them... So why am I hesitating? Maybe I don't like money...

I really don't know. When I see other sites, I don't really have a problem with people having ads... but then I look at guys like Lucko and Hoy and I don't see ads on their site... so I really don't know what to do... but to call this a dilemma... I'm probably retarded... most people probably would have taken the money and put up the links... I will probably eventually succumb to the pressure and do it even though I might try to be moderately selective because I don't want my blog to turn into a billboard like a Nascar...

For those of you out there, has every blogger that's gotten an offer agreed to put up ads on their site? For those of you that don't have it up, is it only because you haven't had any offers? For those of you that have gotten offers, why did you turn it down? Hoy, I'm probably looking at you on this one...

Oh, and before I forget, this might be the death of the Heads Up Challenges... but, this should be interesting nonetheless. My new favorite blogger is hosting a weekly heads up tournament on Sundays. Check out details here.

Go check it out. Alright, have a good weekend all and Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Wow, it feels like it's been forever since I last posted... well, almost a week so it's close. Work has been extremely busy still so no time to post anything meaningful... of course, that hasn't slowed down my poker playing at all... it just cuts into my sleep time. So let's see... in the past week, what happened?

Well, this past weekend, I got crushed. I mean it was a total bloodbath. These days, it seems that some people are sometimes watching me play or stalking me (like PouringReign) so I don't know if any of you got to witness the massacre of this past weekend. I won't go into the actual figures here since it might send my parents to cardiac arrest but it was brutal... what started as a couple of innocent bad beats apparently put me on megatilt and I started getting my stack in with very marginal holdings and next thing I knew, I was in a spiral of tilt and spewing money left and right.

I will say this. I actually learned a pretty valuable lesson. Not tilting is clearly one but I was starting to get overly aggressive... maybe to the point where I was getting a little blindly aggressive. I don't have any HHs with me right now but suffice to say that I was starting to defend my blind a little too much by 3 betting marginal holdings (like A3o), I was 4 betting with marginal holdings (AJs), etc... In other words, the tilt made me even more retardedly aggressive... so I decided to calm down, look back at some of the HHs from my past sessions and I noticed that my game was starting to become one dimensional. I was either raising or folding... Now, that might sound like a good thing except I was building pots a little too much with marginal holdings.

So, one adjustment I am starting to make, especially at deep cash tables is that if there are some limpers ahead of me and I have a hand like suited connectors and one gappers, I limp along from late position instead of raising. Of course, sometimes, I would raise as well. It's just a matter of varying my play. I think before, I was pretty much raising or folding... calling wasn't in my play book and even though I don't advocate calling often, there are places where it makes sense to do so. I also know that when I was 3 bet and I had a middle pocket pair, I have started to fold them sometimes. It really depends on the set mining odds and how often the opponent is 3 betting me and how often he would cbet postflop. The fact of the matter is, if you raise to $14 and then they repop you to $48, it's gonna cost you another $34 to call. Even if we both had a full buy in of $400, you now barely have enough set mining odds. Of course, you could say, well, it's $34 to call into a pot with $68 so you're getting 2:1 and if the guy who reraised started with $400, he has $350 remaining, you should have enough set mining odds. However, the fact of the matter is, you barely have enough. You're gonna flop a set once every 8 times. So, when you call, you want to make sure you are getting better odds than that. In other words, with above stack sizes, in order to make this a profitable move to call the reraise in the long run, every time you hit a set, you have to be able to stack the guy. If not, I can't see calling a reraise with a middle pocket pair being a profitable move in the long run.

I'll get back to posting more HHs soon as things at work should calm down.

On another note, I'm sure most of you know about the ridiculous week or two that lucko's been having with his live tournament win of 21k coupled with the two online tourney win in one night for a 14k+ score, etc. Meanwhile, the not as prominent blogger, but my personal favorite, Matt got his second biggest score of his life in the 28k so good job to him too. With the FTOPS starting over at Fulltilt and with a lot of the big scores, I am starting to get the tournament itch...

One last thing... this post is freakin bouncing around everywhere. The summer blogger gathering is set for the weekend of June 7-8 but I will be in Japan during that time... Isn't it also crazy that the weekend the blogger gathering is going on is the same weekend as the TOC? I was initially due to fly back from Japan on June 8th but that would actually mean that I would be on the plane when the TOC is going on... so, I did what any normal degenerate would do which is to push back my flight for a day. Well, then now, it appears that a lot of people will be hitting Vegas the week after, ie the weekend of June 14-15. Since I'll just be getting back from Japan a few days before, it would be tough for me to fly out that weekend to Vegas... but considering that some of the people I've never met before like Hoy and Cmitch are going out there that weekend, to say that I'm tempted is an understatement. We'll see. I'm fairly certain it will be a last minute decision.

God, that felt like a long and yet, pretty much a worthless post. I'm a little rusty, what can I say? I have a company happy hr tonight so I may not be able to make it to Riverchasers. I already registered so if I don't make it back, enjoy my $10.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

As indicated in my last post, the past few days have been hectic... as a matter of fact, the last few weeks have been hectic... I can't remember the last time I worked less than 50 hours in a week. But the other night, after I busted out of Skill series, I went back to the office around 11pm and worked all night... first time ever in my career to pull an all nighter... I've done a work till 2am and be back in the office by 6am... but never have I pulled an all nighter (pretty amazing considering I spent 8 years in public accounting, I jump to the corporate world and pull an all nighter). I worked till 7:30am, went home, showered and changed, and was back in the office by 9am. I was starting to fade in the afternoon but all the reports were filed on time and so first disaster averted. We are currently in the process of hiring and I will be interviewing a few people on Friday and Monday. The powers to be realized that we are short staffed. Hey, what took so long!!!

I still did manage to play some poker. Last night, I left work shortly after 5pm, went home, slept till about 9 (I set my alarm) and ate/got ready to play the Mookie. It's still kind of a blur but my bust out hand was me jamming T9s into cmitch's AJ. I also managed to get my much needed 200 points so I qualify for the ironman on the last day of the month. Phew. I mean otherwise, I would have to play in the gold freeroll. Bleh.

Now last Friday, I went out for a few beers with my friends and one of my friends mentioned that I need to increase my nonpoker posts. Funny because if I string together too many poker posts, I hear some of you mention that I need to up my poker content... you know, since it is a poker blog.

So I'm debating creating a separate blog so that I could keep this very poker heavy and the other one being pretty much nonpoker stuff. Matt (Mclarich) does it and I read both his poker post (which hasn't been updated in a while, I think) and his nonpoker blog (which, to me, is just as entertaining). So, I don't know if I will or not but just something that I am contemplating these days. I should be back to posting more frequently again with some more poker content.

Congrats to waffles for winning April TLB, to lucko for winning the 3rd event in BBT3 (fuckin sick), and to me for still being in the lead for the $2k prop bet.